Guide to fixing a laptop power jack. A Do-it-yourselfer

Fixing a DC power jack on your (or someone else’s) laptop can be difficult. Not knowing what you are up against is a sure sign that you won’t ever get it back together. However with the proper steps, repairing a DC Jack can be accomplished with little headache.

This is by no means an official super user manual. This write up is a check list and a general guide to help you replace a DC jack without having to purchase a new motherboard or a new laptop.

Disclaimer: I claim NO RESPONSIBILITY for anyone who fails in their attempt to replace a DC jack or any damage laptops can receive following this guide. I am just trying to inform others from the steps I have taken for DC replacement and the blunders I have performed myself.

0) As step zero, it is important to make sure that you identify a bad DC jack. If a laptop isn’t charging when it’s plugged in combined with a very loose power jack port usually indicates you have a bad DC jack. I have also seen DC Jacks that are just fine, however when looked inside, you see it has been physically destroyed on the rear end of the jack itself. Each case is mostly different, but you will run across 3 possible scenerios.

a) The DC jack has cold solders and it just needs to be resoldered (the most common).
b) The DC jack has been broken in unseen areas of the jack itself (common diagnosis is the wiggling of the jack with the adapter).
c) There is nothing wrong with the DC Jack and it’s an issue with something else onboard (uncommon, but it happens).

1) Do your research.

So you conclude that you have a bad jack. Find out what style or sort of power jack you need for the laptop. You don’t need to open the laptop to find out what type of power jack you need. Go to ebay and search for model laptop + dc jack. For example, if you have a Dell Inspiron 2300, search ebay for “inspiron 2300 jack”. You will be greeted with some useful results. Not only will it give you results for DC Jacks but they they look like in general. It would suck if you ordered a random DC jack that doesn’t even fit inside the notebook.

At this time, it would be best to check to see if the laptop powers on. If here is enough battery juice left, turn it on to ensure that the laptop works fine. It will be essential after reassembly which I will explain later

Some models like Toshiba Satellites will have a DC jack with different pin sizes. The pin in the middle of the jack will be a different gauge or different size. It’s crucial that you check to ensure that you get the correct jack size. Failure to do so will ensure you some problems when you plug in your Power adapter (ie: it won’t fit). When you receive your DC jack in the mail, fit it on the power adapter that goes the notebook to make sure that you received the right DC jack.

2) Prepare and gather the tools you need. Make sure you have the right tools for the job.

Make sure you have different types of phillips screw drivers, flat headed screw drivers, hex screw drivers, torque screw drivers, etc. If you have never been inside your laptop, then you don’t know what to expect.

3) Visual overview and time to get to know your laptop. This one is I consider an important step, but it can easily be missed.. Before I am ready to disassemble a laptop, I always look at every single screw hole, removable piece and potential issues. It’s just a practice that I myself perform to help me remember where the nooks and corners are. Take about 5 minutes to sit down and rotate the laptop around and look at it in more detail.

Time to get started…

4) Remove the external devices. By external devices, I am talking about the Hard Drive, Battery, PCMCIA devices if you have any, etc. When you remove these devices, you will see screws in new places and it will obviously make it easier to access the laptop when disassembly occurs. The CD ROM from a laptop, most of the time, cannot be removed at this point. When you start removing screws, it may be easier to remove the CDROM later but not in the beginning.

5) Disassembly and documentation of your steps. This is where the paper and pencil come in. The super duper most important tactic you need to perform during the disassembly process is the documentation. I cannot emphasize enough the need to document where every single screw location and size.

The most general place to start disassembly is on the bottom of the laptop. It has the most accessible screws. Generally what you want to do is draw on a piece of paper a rough diagram of one laptop. Draw one side of the laptop per page. On the diagram, label where screws are located on the laptop. Be as descriptive as possible about the location of the screws and their location. Here is a general example of a diagram.

When you remove screws, use the tape to stick them near the hole where they came from. In case the tape fails, the diagram you draw will assist you in putting them back where they belong. Document the order in which pieces are removed. Another solution (and what I personally do) is to collect all the screws from a section, tape them in a little bundle and stick them in a notable location.

Some laptops have only 2-3 sizes of different screws. There are many laptops that have many different sized screws. Take the time and document where each screw comes from. IBM Thinkpads are nice. They actually have a sticker that shows the label of screws and screw sizes. It comes in handy. Some Toshibas also have a label next to screw holes and give you unique identifiers.

Once again, it’s essential that you document each step you take during the disassembly of the laptop!

6) Handle with care. The Plate connector beneath the LCD is the most fragile piece of the laptop disassembly. That’s why I gave it it’s own mini-section.

It’s the most fragile because if you force to plate too hard, you will snap or damage it. Some models have it just tied down by a few screws underneath the laptop. Most models have a snap action to it. It comes in handy to use a very super duper thin flat head screw driver to probe the plate. If the screw driver bends too much, then it’s time to probe in a different section. Please be cautious when doing this. A good place to probe is on the hinges where the plate overlaps next to the LCD hinge. When you start pulling up on the hinge from the corners, it will start exposing the parts underneath it.

(Note: The LCD display will not have to be disassembled fully. Just the cord and hinges can be removed alone. You do not have to get into the insides of the LCD.)

7) Motherboard access review. You’ve disassembled the laptop and you have the motherboard in your hands. Look at the DC jack and it’s connection to the motherboard. The most common issue I see with DC jack failure is cold soldering or failure in the solder itself. Most of the time, the jack can be repaired by re-soldering the current DC jack in place. Some of the time, the DC Jack itself is damaged and needs to be replaced.

8 ) Replace / Repair the DC Jack. If the DC Jack needs to be replaced, use your soldering iron to heat up the solder from the DC jack and remove the old jack. If you have a DC jack with hooks or curves in the connector, good luck. I know how much it sucks removing this type of DC Jack, but with some patience and persistence, it can be done. When the DC Jack is removed, go ahead and solder in the new DC Jack into it’s slot.

Warning: Some motherboards have very thin rings around the DC Jack connectors themselves. The older sony Vaio laptops have them. If you heat the solder too hot or too long, these rings come off. When that happens, you might as well call it game over. These rings connect the DC Jack to the motherboard using extremely thin connections. The rings are vital to the DC Jack connection to the motherboard.

When you get the new DC Jack in the slot, you have the option of putting hot glue around the corners of the new DC Jack. It’s an option to prevent the DC jack from getting bumped and pushed too much from the AC Adapter. It’s just added strength. Just don’t over-do it if you decide to put some on.

BE CAREFUL ABOUT THE CHIPS AND ELECTRONICS AROUND THE DC JACK!

I have destroyed chips on laptops because I was not careful when I was de-soldering and soldering. A sharper soldering iron is a better tool than a blunt rounded soldering iron. Trust me on that.

9) Test your continuity. It sounds impossible, but you can test to make sure that you connected your DC Jack correctly. Most volt meters have a continuity checker on them. Check to make sure the grounded section of the DC jack properly grounds, and if possible, check to ensure that the positive pin on the DC Jack is properly connected to the motherboard. You can do this by touching some of the diodes on the motherboard close to the jack. You will know if it registers.

10) Reassembly with a little faith. This is the moment of truth. If you documented your disassembly well, then it will be your roadmap to reassembling the laptop. Start reassembling the laptop in the reverse order in which you disassembled it. Make sure you plug in every little cord, and ribbon back into your laptop. Disassembling the laptop again because you forgot a wire or ribbon is just annoying to the max.

11) Testing the laptop. Test the battery first to make sure that the laptop turns on without the DC Jack. There have been a few laptops that I have worked on that didn’t turn on after I reassembled it. It sucks, but it does happen. Sometimes you damage something during the whole process, but with caution it can be avoided.

Once you verified the laptop turns on with battery, then go ahead and plug in the DC Jack. First sign it works is the “Battery charging” light turns on and you know you have a successful replacement. At this point you can turn on the laptop and your job is complete. If your laptop doesn’t turn on .. well.. go back to step 4 and 5 and go from there. It can happen, but I haven’t seen it too often unless there are more problems with the laptop than originally thought.

I hope this gives you a general idea on how to replace a DC jack on a laptop. It’s not a perfect guide and I will edit it as necessary to clear the rough edges up.

My boss gave me his laptop to repair this same problem, but unfortunately, it seems that the power connections inside the motherboard were damaged, so it won’t take power from the AC adapter. Is there anyway that you can run power into the battery socket? I understand that there are a number of connections, but there must be a + and a – in there somewhere. My boss is insistant that I get this laptop working again, but I’m not confident. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

As stated in another replay, look for pad where the fuses (usually white with silver square ends, or tan with silver square ends, are found very near the jack. You can usually tell cause there is typically several 3-4 plated thru holes nearby. However caution you may need to find someone with a identical board and see if they can ohm out the same point where it connects to the center pin. As for ground that can be most any point of metal sheild in the unit. Of course the last resort is to have to replace the motherboard which is more work than just trying to fix it. If the board is not badly damaged then usually you can put the jack back in place but maybe bending up the tab or the senter pin to allow you to solder a wire over to the fuse pad. You can scrape away a small area of the green or whatever color coating to expose copper trace. And you can then solder to that. You can then once tested to work, use hot glue gun to help secure the jack into place. Are you sure the jack center pin is not loose or broken? If it is just loose you might be able to scrap[e the rivet end of it and solder it enough to work. But replacing the jack is the better idea.

If the power jack is broken and you cannot replace/resolder it, you can try allocating the jack outside the laptop case. Here’s a guide witch shows how to do that: Broken laptop power jack workaround
This is instructions for a Toshiba laptop but I don’t think it will be much different for any other notebook PC.

100 watt is way too powerful. If that is not hot enough then you should take a jewelers screwdriver or a small exacto knife and clean up the plastic and other contamination. You cannot solder if the trace or jack is dirty. Use some alcohol to remove excess rosin, I dont reccomend running wires out of the notebook to an external socket, unless its your own notebook. Can be done but looks sloppy and well as long as the customer is ok with it. Cause its surely cheaper than a new motherboard of course.

Thanks! We just replaced our dc jack in our Gateway notebook ourselves. I’m sure that the universal power adapter we bought about 6 months ago caused the problem. I won’t make that mistake again. We used a solder wick to remove the old solder, instead of a sucker and set our gun at 30W. Our total cost including the soldering materials was only about $30.00. I was quoted about $400.00 to have it sent out and repaired! Thanks for taking the time to share this info with us.

I have a Gateway laptop (MT6821) too, with the same problem. How did you remove the back cover to expose the DC jack? I removed a lot od screws last night, but was not able to remove the back plastic cover.

redalarm

December 24, 2010 at 10:59 am

working on my daughter,s computer same model, same problem…Gateway mt6821 removed 12 screws covers for fan , hard drive etc. cannot open it up any tricks that you can help me with ???

redalarm

December 24, 2010 at 12:16 pm

She is going back to college in a few days, back for the holidays. I hope I can fix this in time… Any ideas on this one on how to open this one up

No. you probably need to reseat the video cable and or power cable running to the inverter that sits below the LCD display. Can you see a pciture if you shine a desk lamp or flashlight onto the screen? If so the inverter has failed or not making connection. You normally would not take apart the display when fixing the power jack however.

I just got my laptop back from a company called laptopjacks.com, they were recommended by HP. The laptop seems to be working fine again. I was unable to disassemble it all the way so I decided to have it fixed by pros.

Try using the end of a large resistor heat it up with a soldering iron and push the resistor to force the peice out of the hole. Do not attempt to drill it out however. or use a fine jewlers screwdrive and wiggle it out while applying heat. Do not use too much force or you will damage the traces and hole. If you fail, then install the jack and bend the pin and jumper a peice of wire around to the other side of the motherboard, but avoid too long of wire or shorting out to edge of board. usually you can find a way to route it to the proper location. Use hot glue to hold the socket into place.

I have an Acer Aspire 3000 with the model number 3004WLMi. I have went to ebay’s websites, contacted Acer America, and to DCJacks.com. I have ordered three jacks, all of which have been too small. Do you have any suggestions on how to determine which dc jack would work? The computer repair shops will not order the piece for me since they are not going to repair the laptop themselves. Thank you for any assistance.
Linda

On a ARIMA W720-K8M laptop the center pin in the power jack has broken out and one of two little devices with a minute cable between has come off the board. I think I’ll recomend to owners to BUY a new laptop. I’ve got a photo of it but don’t seen to be able to add it here

Several laptop manufacturers have published full maintenance manuals on the web which cover step-by-step disassembly and reassembly, effectively saving you the trouble of documenting everything yourself. The Dell manuals in particular are excellent – they even include a printable screw classification sheet to place your screws onto when you remove them from the computer!

Regarding soldering irons, a 30W iron should be enough most of the time, although we did have a Dell with some “magic solder” once that needed 50W to desolder. A question to those who are struggling to melt solder with 100W+ irons: You are tinning your irons, aren’t you? You don’t need a very high temperature for this kind of work. Using excessive heat while soldering will (1) burn your flux and (2) risk cooking nearby ICs on the motherboard – neither of which is desirable.

Has anyone ever heard of “Chip Quick”? Its a special flux paste that will lower the normal melting point of solder so you can easily remove without melting plastic or destroying traces. Google it online and order a small bottle and all your troubles will go away.

I like this guide, but there is one problem that I am having that wasn’t adressed. In the process of de-soldering and soldering, after removing the old jack there is old solder that isn’t alowing me to insert the new jack. I have tried for a long time to get the old solder out of the holes but it just remelts or goes to the other side of the circuit board. Is there something that I can do to remove the old solder?

They sell what is called desolder braid and it will suck up any remaining solder and also go along ways towards removing any remaining pins that are possibly left after removing the old jack. clean area well with alcohol and then insert new jack and re-solder. Hope this helps anyone that might be having problems, also if you find you can not get the old jack’s solder to heat up enough for removal, this may be due to the MB having a coating on it, that is primarily used to protect it from moisture or the possibility of getting wet. To rectify the dolution, don’t add more heat, just flow some high quality solder with the factory solder and it should start to melt together, as they begin mixing together and soon the joint will be soften enough to remove the old jack! If you are looking for any other hints or tips, contact me by email, thanks.
Jason

WISH I HAD FOUND THIS GUIDE SOONER. I fixed both of our laptops….Slow tedious careful work without someone else having already done the heavy lifting. One thing I found was that the constant tugging and pulling on the cable seemed to be the culprit. As such I bought a couple of (weird name) jerkstoppers to keep the tension off the poorly designed and pitifully fragile connection. SOURCE: http://www.jerkstopper.com I think!

I’m having similar problems with my Compaq Presario M2000 notebook too. I had to wiggle the adapter to the power connector of the notebook or my laptop battery won’t charge and won’t turn on if it doesnt have it’s battery on. That metal thing which I plug into the DC gets extremely hot very quickly in matter of minutes also.

I’ve been looking for information on how to dismantle my notebook to get access to the DC power jack but looks like there’s too much risk involved. Too many screws to look out for and thin wires in the way. Almost made me feel like Im defusing a bomb or something. Im a college student living on college budget and couldn’t afford to buy a new laptop and the warranty is already up. I bought the laptop only 2 years ago.

I would really really appreciate it if anybody could give me a guide on how to dismantle my laptop and get access to the DC power jack. I’s gonna cost me $120 if I were to send it to the shop to repair. My email address is hafiz_felix2000@yahoo.com or Instant Message me at hafiz_alone2006@hotmail.com

A couple of weeks ago I saw the mention about a cable retention device (Jerk stopper) in the comments. I ordered two for our laptops…..Wow, it really works well. I wish I had these before I paid Sony to fix the power pin on my old 505ZSK. Repairs were worth more than the system I think.

thanks for the guide, took apart laptop and thought i fixed problem, took apart again to investigate better because it did not work first time. still got problem. going to order jack and replace this time. as for documentating, if you have one of the all in one printer scanner copier machines– try and make a photo copy and place screws on to that when removing. beats drawing it.

Hi, Wondering if you can help. I did the repairs but must have done something wrong. Could you tell me or show me, (by diagram) what the pos+ jack post should read continuity from and the neg- When I solder the jack in I get a pos+ continuity reading when I touch the pos+ and the neg- (with continuity tester) please help me, this is all I have left to do. Thank you, Thank you

I replaced the jack on my gateway but now when I boot up it will only run on the battery. If I remove the battery it runs fine on AC power. The battery does not charge unless the laptop is off. Any suggestions? Thank you

the link is dead m8. i had a go repairing my acer aspire 9300 with no luck on replacing jack. the solder wouldnt melt at all, so i soldered wires to the + and – points (if anyone wants to know, + is directly behind the black plastic pin that hold jack in place and – is the 2 pins close together to the right of the +). soldered te wires to the + and – on nw jcak then superglued it to outside case. the jobs a good un. thanks for the guide tho, it really helped when having a go

Hello
I have a Gateway MX8711 laptop. I left it working fine ysterday morning, battery dead so I plugged it in. Got home, wouldn’t turn on. Had the adapter checked and it’s fine. Best Buy Geek Squad said it’s probably the mother board. This computer is less than a year and a half old, is only used for personal stuff and doesn’t travel (also, no kids or pets). Two months ago I had to install a new hard drive. Gateway tried to tell me hard drives only last a year. Insane, I have an old compaq presario going strong after 5 years. Anyway, is there a way to determine if it’s the d/c jack or the motherboard? Honestly, I don’t know or trust any repair shops around here, Tampa. My husband has done some easier things with our computers, like replacing hard drives, cd roms, adding memory etc. Any feedback appreciated. Thanks.

Did you ever get to know what was wrong with your Gateway MX8711? I have the same laptop and the DC jack just went dead. I know the adapter is fine. Just wondering if you solved your problem by changing the DC jack or if there was another problem. Thanks

This is an excellent guide for replacing the jack in a laptop. Unfortunately it was a little late for me. I did have a good experience with the company that I chose for DC jack repair. I sent my HP ZE4200 to Comprehensive Computing in Virginia ( http://comprehensivecomputing.net/laptop_power_jack_repair.htm ) and they did a good job for about 100 bucks. But, if I had found this earlier, I might have taken a stab at it myself! haha

I took my laptop in to have the DC jack resoldered. When I got it back the computer turned on (but booted slow) so I assumed it was fixed. The battery had been charged and I think, in retrospect, this is why my computer powered up. When it was on and running I checked 2 of my e mail accounts, took the battery out (while it was plugged in) and it lost all power. I tried to turn it back on with the battery out and it would come on for a second then die. I put the battery back in there and turned it on but, it would not re-boot. I had power (with the battery in) but could not get my computer to load windows and go to my homescreen. The service tech I spoke with assured me that the computer was just “repairing” itself and to leave it running and try to boot. I did as instructed, took a nap and woke up to a computer with NO power (battery and all). I am far from a computer expert but, I thought maybe 1. they didn’t fix what I paid them 180.00 to fix at Renissance Computer in Columbus, OH. and/or 2.0They may have done somehting to the motherboard when poking around or attempting to resolder my dc jack. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated!!

Read all of the helpful posts and I’d like to add another one. Now that just about everyone has a digital camera, one should not hesitate to take plenty of photos during each step during the disassembly of the laptop. Then when you’re finished with the repair and unsure of how something goes back together you can just review the photos you had taken earlier.

i have a compaq 700 laptop the dc jack finialy broke loose,unable to pay the $100 or so to fix it since my work has slowed down, i decited to try it myself. i am not a computer tech. but i have a lot of common sence and know enough to ask for help and study the net for information.after a weak of takeing my laptop apart slowly and cautiously i was able to get to the dc jack.it was broke loose and you can see where it has been burnt.im planning on putting a diferent type plug on it but im not sure where to sauder the wires at.i see the neg but im not sure about the pos. side can you please help me maybe with a picture, ive got this far i dont want to mess it up now. thanks robert cobb.

Thank you for the nice procedures. This worked well for me. I just changed out the DC jack on my Gateway MX3210. There were no visible signs of damage to my old jack so the problem must have been inside the jack. After following your steps I was able to disassemble, de-solder old jack, then solder on the new. Now it works perfectly. Your advice to draw the screw configuration on a piece of paper (step 5) is a good one. I even scotch taped the screws to my drawing…nothing got lost! One other step I did was I set up a video camera to record the entire disassembly, in case I messed up. Thanks!

Usually if anyone has any questions, I attempt to contact them personally through email. (Which is why you never see any responses). However I will say that I believe this comment from Jeff is the first time anyone has mentioned any success from the procedure. I want to personally thank Jeff for posting his success response. There have been minor tweeks to the post to make it easier, however I am glad someone was able to get through the DC Jack procedure and save tons of money. Thanks Jeff. 🙂

In trying to locate a replacement power jack for a Presario M2000, I was told I can only replace the motherboard at this point. I have checked the HP site, GeekSquad, compUSA. Any such thing as black market products. Also, I am unable to pull off the back with all viewable screws removed. Where are the latched or whatever that I am missing. The hangup is near the middle about where the battery cradle begins.

You won’t be able to pull off the back just from unscrewing the bottom. It doesn’t work that way. It’s literally a full disassembly process before you can get to the DC Jack. It’s almost always the last component you reach after the laptop is fully disassembled.

I received a laptop Compaq Presario M2000 the pin was bad Hp wanted $399.00 to fix it inc.power cord and battery.other places wanted at least $130.00,fixed it myself for $3.85,plus $3.99 s/h
make that diagram that some digital pics helps too,check the internet for repairing your computer to get diagrams and specs,It is easy with a lot of slow going,I have never taken one apart before .DO NOT FORCE ANYTHING!!!

I accidentally broke off the pins on the jack, all but one. How the heck do I get them out. I have been trying to remove the solder with a braid copper wire and heat it up, but no luck in the pins loosening. What can I try to get the pins out? Any ideas would be appreciated!!! I am using a Weller SP23L maybe it is not hot enough?

If you really want to get the solder out of the holes, and are a “live on the edge” type of person, you can use a trick I’ve used before. Heat the hole enough to melt the solder. Then take a can of duster air and blast away at the hole while removing the iron. You are likely to get a little hot solder flying about but its less frustrating than a bridged hole. I take no responsibility for accidents.

My dad is having this prob on a HP laptop, about 3 years old. He just went out and bought a new toshiba, and is giving me the HP. said if I can fix it, I can have it. 😛 This guide will be great. Will be trying it sat night/sunday.

Have gateway m505b2 laptop.
dc power jack is defective.
can’t get to dc jack because I cant remove the bottom cover.
Need a sevice manual or detailed insructions.
I removed all screws and still can’t remove cover.
Need help!
Kent sacramento,ca

GHETTO WAY THAT WORKS!!!!
The peg inside my computer broke, and I was about to try to replace it, but if you like do things kind of ghetto like me, I discovered an option. First take out the brokenm peg if it is still in the end of the power adapter, and in is place, fit in 4 pieces of long copper wireing. Then cut them all at once, just so the copper is only slightly coming out of the end of the power adapter. Does not work perfect, and you need to wiggle sometimes, but better than getting rid of the computer, or trying to fix when you have no experience.

I don’t want to invest the money to fix the piece of junk Gateway that I have that is only 18 months old but I want my files and photos. It won’t power on AT ALL now after a few months of jiggling the cord just so. Is there anyway that I can just get the stuff of my computer? I have already bought a new Dell.

Several companies sell adapters to allow you to remove the hard drive out of the notebook, and connect it to any other computer via USB port. Then you can just copy over all needed data. If it is a SATA drive, you MIGHT be able to just hook it up into a desktop computer using a spare SATA cable and possibly may need a IDE to Sata power adapter cable.
The one I have cost me $25.00

Fantastic article used the write up to fix my Dell Inspiron 1300 thanks for taking the trouble to write it up. The only comment i will make is that you relly do need a good quality thin tipped soldering iron to help make the soldering an easy operation.

Wanted to leave a positive comment for you. I read through your general instructions and, along with a service manual pdf from Dell, changed out a power plug in a Dell Inspiron 1300. took a couple of hours, switched it out and it is working fine. Thanks for a great article.

I just replaced my plug in my Toshiba Tecra. Ya!!!! Excellent instructions. I did not need anything but a screwdriver because I bought a new plug for $30 on laptop jack inc. I thought I was going to have to replace the motherboard but this worked great!!!!

thought I had a powerjack problem. turns out its fine. trouble apparantly is one of the diodes on the motherboard closes when AC is on. laptop runs fine on battery. just can’t charge battery via laptop, and of course laptop won’t run on AC. Have you ever seen an external battery charging source, or figured out a way to make one?

sounds very good, my son has a gateway mt66824b laptop that just wont charge, the plug used to have to be wiggled very hard to get to charge (apparantly!!) have tried resoldering the connectors, but to no avail, i have checked the earth part of the jack is connected to the motherboard, but i cannot seem to confirm that the centre jack/pin is connecting ok, (all my meter tests fail) does anyone have any diagrams or schematics of the power path and where i can test to, or alternativly solder a jumper wire to from the centre pin directly, (as i think it is not makign contact with the motherboard correctly.
any help would be great as my son is without his laptop and i cant afford to buy him a new one at the moment!! thanks. Kevin.

Hello guys 🙂 This article is great 😀
I am considering doing it myself. However, i was wondering if anyone could tell me if it would be possible to replace my current size jack (a smaller one that is difficult to find) with a slightly larger one that is really common, because it is so expensive to replace the chargers that fit my current jack D:
I would really appreciate it if anyone could let me know their opinions 🙂
Thanks very much 🙂
Mia

Thank you so much for ur guide, i followed exactly as u said on my Travelmate 2480. Documentation was not a problem for me as i found a disassembly and reassembly video on youtube. da hardest part was the soldering. My soldering iron was not hot enough to melt the old solder so I had to borrow a more powerful soldering iron from my friend. I did pretty bad on da soldering but still manage to turn on da notebook afterall. I’ve learnt many from dis guide and again thank you so much!!

Any port that requires something to be plugged into and unplugged from eventually wears out–laptops and apple notebooks alike. If papa wants to treat, I’m sure we’ll all be happy to switch to Macs…lmao!

Oh they do but not so easily. You can still break the plug easily, and or short it out to fry the adapter. Those who can afford a MAC congrats, but what happens when you want to run software written only to work with the hardware of a PC? HAHA your screwed.

Macs are expensive, papa, and I’d rather fix the thing I’ve got (if possible) than buy a brand new one.

Taking laptops apart is really not that hard but I have no soldering iron thing so I am not sure what I am going to do yet. But this is my exact problem so thanks for posting the instructions and some really good ideas about how to not forget what you did to take it apart in the first place.

I used Comprehensive Computing and it cost about $125 with shipping. But after six months, I have a loose connection again. Their new warranty allows a free repair if it is their fault. Anyway, for about $4 (US) you can get a plastic C-Clamp that will allow you to clamp the power cord to the monitor or base once your battery indicator shows that you are connected (charging). Of course the downside is that you must ALWAYS have your system plugged in. I purchased mine at Orchard Supply Hardware.

I’m trying to replace the DC jack in my Acer 4620, but can’t seen to get inside to access the DC jack. I removed the external battery, all screws from the bottom of the laptop, CD rom drive, but can’t open the laptop. What am I missing?

I seem to have fixed my broken DC Power Jack after reading only the first part of your guide about looking at the jack.
Everything looked fine, no cracks, but the plug was loose and wobbled from side to side. It was due to the jack being a bit larger than the plug by design. Well, it seems that the 4 prongs of the jack (that make contact with the metal outer cylinder of the plug) were not protruding much (if at all) into the plug. I took a tiny screwdriver, put it into the jack and slipped in under one of the above mentioned prongs, thereby bending the prong. Did this to a second prong also. Then I plugged in the power plug and it pushed in about 3 times as hard as normal due to the bent prongs, but the problem of intermittant contacts and erratic switching to battery power is FIXED. Suggest that you mention the possibility of limp prongs in your guide. It took longer to write this than to fix the problem.

I managed to open my Fujitsu c1020 laptop and replace the dc power jack with a new one i bought from a seller on ebay. After managing to put all the pieces back together i was anxious to see if my laptop would turn on. I plugged the dc cord and suddenly i saw the red light of the battery, only problem is that the laptop doesn’t have a battery and therefore it doesn’t turn on. Anyone know what the problem might be

Successful repair/replacement of power jack on Inspiron 8600. As others have noted, jack exhibited no external or otherwise noticeable signs of damage/looseness/shorting. Per my experience and based on what I’ve read, however, odds were on the power jack given the symptoms. Quoted cost of repair (if successful) from the only reputable shop in town: $264.00 with preliminary diagnostic, $200.00 if they simply did what I asked and replaced the power jack (no diagnostic). The last thing they heard before the click of disconnection was me chuckling sarcastically. My actual do-it-myself cost of repair: $33.00. $24.00 at Radio Shack for a 25-watt soldering iron, desoldering braid (copper) and 60/40 rosin-core solder. And $6.99 for the new replacement jack from http://www.notebookworks.net shipped first class for an additional $1.99. Truly impressed with the seller/shipper I just mentioned. And I get to keep the soldering iron…already used it again to repair a long-ago broken spare car remote (compared to $150.00 for a new one). Anyway, this guide was genuinely helpful. As a couple of other posters have mentioned, I would reiterate the wisdom and benefit of cleaning (gingerly) the desoldered area with isopropyl alcohol BEFORE seating and soldering the new jack. A tightly folded corner of cotton cloth worked well for me. This neatly cleans the solder points and removes any residues that might impede conductivity of the newly soldered contacts. Cheers.

I’m working on a gateway ma7 Do you know where to jumper the + pin on the dc jack back to the motherboard. When the jack solder joint came loose it lifted the small soldering ring that connects it to the motherboard. Im looking to jumper from the pin to the next spot electrically to the motherboard. any ideas?

I have a Dell Inspiron 8500. The battery I had was not holding a charge. Since it was the original battery I assumed that it had died. The battery charge light on the laptop would flash yellow three time, then once green, then repeat the process over and over. I bought a new battery, but now I am not getting any activity out of the charge light, and after doing some checking have determined that the battery is not being charged. Any ideas or suggestions?

Hi
Jason, couldnt get your email but i am having a nightmare with acer 5680 power jack in respect of the 5 pins that were soldered on (looks rather a dirty colour), by the manufacturer – just wont budge

i have loosened and now the jack is off but simply cannot remove the 5 points with solder. They dont even loosen when heat is on them, just a tiny amount of an impression from my iron, yet my iron turns the new solder in a second so i image it gets hot enough? its a 40 watt

I have a problem with my Dell D620. It suddenly turned off, and now wont turn back on. No lights come on either. The battery is charged, but nothing happens when I press the POWER ON button. In addition, when I try to connect the AC adapter to the laptop, the light on the AC adapter goes off as well. This might indicate a short in my laptop. Will fixing the laptop power jack help or is this is a bigger problem? Any help will be appreciated.

Hi great website. I am tryig this on my laptop, its a “no brand” so Im having trouble finding any docs on it. I tried desoldering it but it would not melt the solder. I am using a 25W and 30W Solder Iron. I have seen videos on other laptops and it seems to melt with ease. Do I need more wattage? If so how much? Thanks!

Hello from Germany! May i quote a post a translated part of your blog with a link to you? I’ve tried to contact you for the topic Guide to fixing a laptop power jack. A Do-it-yourselfer « this is my defective kit., but i got no answer, please reply when you have a moment, thanks, Spruch

On an HP zd7000 I’ve done all that, now I want to test the power jack before re-intalling all peripherals back.

How to connect the leads from the volt meter to the power jack?
Power should be on and connected to charger and AC on the wall?
I get continuity among the three holes when power jack not installed, is it supposed to?.
The upper side of the m/b where the jack goes, has like a white square the size of the jack, should I solder the pins up there also?

On previous message I forgot to mention that this is my second attempt and power jack on the same motherboard. The first one had a clicking short that went “puff and sparks” when I wiggled the charger plug connected.
Now I just need to check the voltage before re-installing.

All I can say is “Thank you!” Having performed laptop power jack repairs WITHOUT having read your blog, I can confirm all the caveats mentioned! Happily, God must preserve the simple. For all my repairs have worked wonderfully despite not previously having had access to your insightful advice.

The only thing I would add is the TREMENDOUS difficulty I have had removing the old parts and cleaning-clearing out the circuit board holes for insertion of the new parts!

Any advice or “tricks” on that one?

I am using an expensive QUALITY solder iron (with a solder wetted tip), have solder wick, have a solder sucker. But the combined force of those tools-aids just doesn’t seem to get it done. I invariably have had to use a sharp tool to open up the eyelets after almost having to pry the old parts off the board. (Obviously, I am on dangerous ground resorting to such brute force.)

Am I fighting conductive glue (not solder)? Something. I have worked on older audio components for years and have never encountered the problems described above.

The problem is that there’s lots of copper in the motherboard that connects to the socket pins, and this conducts the heat from the soldering iron away. I work in electronics, and here’s some tips:

– The solder used by the manufacturer is probably lead-free, which has a higher melting point than lead-based solder. Try “diluting” down this solder by flooding it with lower melting-point (eg tin/lead) solder, and removing it with a solder sucker or solder braid. Repeat a few times to “dilute” the original solder further.

– Solder on as much extra solder onto the socket pins that you can – it may sound counter-productive, but it helps to get more heat in, and the extra mass helps to keep the solder molten for longer so that you can get solder melted on all the pins simultaneously.

– Use more than one soldering iron (and more than one person to use them) to help get the solder on all of the pins molten simultaneously.

– If you cannot get the solder on all of the pins molten simultaneously and the socket needs to be scrapped, cut off all the pins that are accessible with wire cutters, then you have fewer pins left on the socket where you need to melt the solder simultaneously. After you’ve removed the socket, individually desolder the cut off pins.

– If solder is stuck in the holes, try using two soldering irons (and two people) one on top of the board and one underneath to melt the solder – this makes it more likely that you’ll melt the solder all the way through. It might be best to add extra solder at first, which helps to get the heat in. Then, remove one iron and quickly use a solder sucker to remove as much solder as you can. If that doesn’t work, repeat, but this time, remove one iron and quickly poke through the hole a drill bit (or something else that’s round and isn’t made of something that can be easily soldered to) which is slightly smaller than the hole – hopefully it will push the solder out. If I’m very desperate, I sometimes drill the solder out with a drill bit, with the solder cold. This always gets the solder out, but you can damage the copper plating within the hole, so only do this if all else fails.

Alright guys….just a quick brain check here: Laptop power jacks sometimes can be repaired in as little as 5 seconds. Yes, unless the jack is physically damaged you can fix it for nothing and save yourself possible heartache. Here are my tags for searchers:Okie Rigged Power jack, Free power jack fix, Quick fix laptop power jack, and my favorite: You have to be an idiot for spending $200 to fix a laptop power jack.
Alright, so assuming that the jack is not completely cracked, split, inside broken out or otherwise complete trash, look at the physical make-up of it. %99 of the time you have an inner pin receptacle, and an outer ring that receives your ground shield.
This outer ring, if you look closely, has a metal flange inside that can be physically bent over time. In several repair jobs this was the culprit, repaired by simply by sticking an extremely small flat head screwdriver head into the edge of the flange and CAREFULLY turning the screwdriver until the flange is sticking out again.
Then again you can keep this information from hundreds of thousands of customers out there and LIE about how hard it was to fix it.
So first of all, remember to look at a possible re-engineering of the receptacle or consider taking a soldering iron to the actual plug itself to add to the girth of the plastic head or shield. Just food for thought, and remember: Just because someone else said “This is how you have to do it” does NOT ALWAYS MEAN THEY’RE RIGHT.
If you own a laptop, you know that the machine is only good for so many years anyway! Besides, when I can buy a new one for less than $400 it makes little sense to spend half that for another six months to a year of underpowered computing!

I have a HP Pavilion DV5 laptop, the pin from the adapter has broken in the power jack socket of the laptop itself (just wear and tear I think). Does anyone have any ideas on how to remove the single pin out from the socket as its broken just below the surface level. I have a new adapter read to plug in but can’t remove the old pin! Help is much appreciated.

This is some very helpful information. I recently havea technician come replace the power port and well he screwed up my computer. It worked just fine, except that the power port was loose and well after he left the screen went crazy so i powered it off and when i turned it on it went straight into beep code. Now i have to wait for another technician because they are blaming it on the memory. Like I said the tech must have damaged something in the process because everything worked fine before he came over.

For what it’s worth…I just got my laptop back from one of these places which specializes in power-jack repair. They did a good job and I’m happy with the results, but I thought I would post two items from an information sheet they enclosed with the repaired computer.
1) 90% of the computers they get don’t actually have problems with the power jack, but instead it’s the AC adapter (or it’s connection plug) itself which is bad. Wish I realized that before I sent mine in for repair.
2) Not all adapters are created equal. They said it’s very important to match the specs on the bottom of your computer to the specs of any new adapter you are purchasing. Cheap Chinese ones are a frequent problem. The mismatched power output ends up causing trouble. They said good / certified / original AC adapters may be obtained for only $10 on eBay.
Hope that helps someone.

I have a Dell XPS laptop. My battery suddenly stopped charging when I plugged it in. This battery is new because I replaced it about 3 months ago. It did not recognize that the dc jack was plugged in. I changed outlets in my house and even took apart the dc plug and power source and put it back together. Finally I took the battery off the laptop and then put it back on after a few minutes. Nothing worked.

My boyfriend is pretty knowledgeable about computers so he decided to replace the dc jack after inspecting it. We ordered the correct part and we went to work. After he had carefully took the laptop apart, he found it was difficult to take off the dc jack from the motherboard. He had to forcefully take it off but he insists that he does not feel he damaged anything in the process. After that he replaced the dc jack. Then, the moment of truth. We plugged in the dc power plug into the jack and…NOTHING.

Not a single light went out. He attempted to try to see if he could physically see anything else but he had run out of ideas. He know believes that it might be something more wrong with the computer, possibly on the motherboard. He says that there was power coming into from the plug (he checked it with multimeter) but that for some reason there was still no power.

*Side Note*
The computer was making a noise that I can only describe as *clicking* for a few seconds for a few months but I couldn’t figure out what it was. It didn’t seem to be related because I had no battery problems before and still had the noise. Just thought I would add it. Also, right before the battery died due to being so low- I wasn’t having any issues with the computer. It appeared to be running “fine”.

Can anyone help? Does anyone know what’s wrong? 😦 I really need my computer back…
Does anyone know what might be wrong? ANY help would be great. Thanks.

Is this the very thin and lightweight XPS? Those have a very flimsy jack, but even more they have flaky AC adapters. On the one I looked at the DC jack is not soldered to the board, but plugs into the board via a 3 inch small cable, and sits over near the edge of the lower left corner of the notebook. Most likely it may have a broken trace, but often you can fix it by jumpering a wire over to the point where power is fed into the board where the surface mount fuses are located. Finding this point however can be tricky. It may be on the bottom side of the board. First is the LED on the adaptor lit up? And you can measure voltage with a cheap multimeter to verify it is getting a good connection. Sadly dell made very cheap power sockets for these small notebooks. Make sure it is at least 45 watt also.
If it is the small XPS I speak of then be sure to check you got the plug pushed into the motherboard properly oriented and secure. It might be in backwards flipped over. On the one I fixed it has the plug with 4 tiny pins. The plug should fit in snug but not force. The pins are offset to fit only 1 way. Also on the one I fixed the metal tab on the power jack may need to be very slightly bent, you can see it which is the contact to the outside part of the jack.

The clicking you mentioned is a sing of the hard drive failing. I would create a backup of your entire computer, ASAP to another external hard drive perhaps or at least to a DVD or Cloud Storage for the important stuff. Its going to eventually quit on you however (maybe).

I am so frustrated with all the laptop manufacturers that sell poor designed machines. I had the same power jack/socket wire problem with a Dell Inspiron (2005 production) and Lenovo N500 (2009 made). Why in the world they don’t create this part to be more reliable, is one of the most exposed to wear. It is unacceptable to buy a new laptop only because the power adapter brakes down so easily. For now I know that I will not buy Dell or Lenovo until they don’t come up with good quality laptops. I was looking at an Apple Powerbook, how they designed the wire socket; the plug is magnetic, has a good contact but if you trip by accident in the wire, it gets off without breaking anything. And also they should make the wire thicker; my Lenovo AC power wire got shot because it is very thin. We should do something about it, we are the customers, we should flood them with complaints to clean up their act and sell quality, reliable products.

Nasty little think Dell does, that 3rd center wire tells the bios you have an official DELL charger or not. It’s simply a tiny little IC disguised (Dell is sooooo evil!!) as a transistor. Open the old charger with whatever you like, (a chisel and a hammer is particularly quick) and then see where that center wire goes, the first component will be the the culprit, usually purposely disguised as a transistor (transistors are black cylinders shapes with a small flat side to it and 3 legs (wires). You will notice one leg goes to ground, one goes to the third wire and the other is fake and soldered to an unconnected hole.
Unsolder it remembering which leg was ground, and which went to the wire and cut the phony one off just because… You can either mount it on the motherboard as I did or solder the appropriate legs to the center pin of the jack and connect the other one to ground. The motherboard sends a query down the center wire upon powerup, and the secret circuit returns a “official DELL, OK to use” signal back to the MB.
You can also change it in BIOS, turn off the message, but it still wont charge the battery. But if you feel comfy writing BIOS that would be a lot easier, in my case this was easier.

Another nasty thing they like to do is hid screws such as between the lid hinges under the LCD lid, they are set in very thin plastic and if you dont know they are there you may pull them through the plastic when removing the cover, which tells dell technicians some un-Dell person has voided the warranty by opening the case.

Never a Dell again!

In contrast, My iPhone broke 3 days out of warranty and the Apple store just handed me a brand new one with a new charger, earphones and full 1 year warranty and said have a nice day… Now I buy nothing but Apple products because that’s how you are supposed to treat your customers. The tech even warned me before he looked at the phone. “If you have jail broken or unlocked the phone and I discover this I will have to note it and it will void your warranty, so are you sure you want to hand it to me, or do you need to come back in a little while”, which was a really considerate (although unnecessary) thing to do.

Actually the third pin is as you say a sense voltage. It tells the charger the battery condition. It is not an OK thing for the Dell. Heres why. Even 2 pin Dell notebooks as well as HP notebooks have sensing of the voltages coming into the notebook. If the voltage dips under demand that triggers the bios and detection circuits to stop charging the battery as it would collapse the power supply. Usually the problem is the charger is not the correct wattage. I.E. 45 watt or 65 watt when unit requires 90 watt. The transistor you mention is actually a diode used to provide a voltage drop and prevent battery to feed voltage back to the adapter when it is not plugged into AC. Universal models do bypass this and tie the third pin to + line. This allows it to never see a voltage drop as long as the universal supply can provide enough amps/wattage to power the unit.

If the plug that connects into the computer from the AC power adapter gets very hot, does that indicate a bad or faulty power jack or faulty AC power adapter? The transformer does not get hot, so it is my guess that the power jack on side of computer needs replaced or possibly resoldered. Any suggestions or comments? I have a Sony Vaio laptop. Also seems bottom back where power jack is located is hot also. Very hot. So much so I am afraid to use it any more and it needs fixed immediately before more damage is done. Appreciate any and all comments, especially from Charlie.

Its probably shorted inside the plug or the socket is loose and causing solder to heat up the motherboard and eventually it will smoke or catch fire. First try a different adaptor to see, then you are best to have the socket repaired. With the plug out of the socket, wiggle and flex the end of the plug, if you hear snapping sparks, or it stays hot then adaptor is bad and should replace it BEFORE it catches on fire and burns down the house!. Plus all the stress it placed on the adaptor means you probably should not trust it anymore. They are dirt cheap universal or otherwise under $20.00 I bet your wanting to see sparks and flames is not worth that much risk.

I attemped to change the power socket folling the instructions but found,of course, that you could not resolder it from the top, of on my HP laptop. The socket was intertmittent from the first so maybe it was unsoldered. I’ll take it apart later. The computer went back for repair three times within the first six months and it would not keep the operating system operating until I pulled the HP Market Research files out of the registry!In the meanwile I’ll buy another brand and operate on this victim when I have an operating computer. I couldn’t imagine doing the repair from the top. I might not want to use a computer socket because everyone seems to complain about them breaking. Can you recommend a better connector that will fit? – Thanks, Louis

I’ve had to repair dc jacks and power supply plugs on numerous occasions. They are definitely the laptops most weakest point. When I haven’t been able to find a compatible jack I’ve just cut the end off the power lead with the jack plug on and wired it directly to the motherboard (after removing all traces of the old and broken jack). OK, the laptop isn’t quite as portable, with a permanent power lead wired in, but perfectly usable and trouble free!

So, I’ve always been a tech person and recently my friend asked me to take a look at his laptop’s DC jack. I feel confident in my ability to replace this if needed, but on a scale of 1-10 how would you guys rate the difficulty on this project? My sodering skills are a bit rusty, so I’ll probably touch those up before going at it. Thanks in advance!

Brandon,
I’m doing it right now. I can tell you that the most difficult part is de-solder the old jack. Sometimes it has too many pads and it’s very difficult to heat and loose all at once. It’s easier with a dc jack with 2-3 pads connected to the motherboard.

Alun,
If you glued it, that’s the reason why isn’t working anymore the glue is working as a island for the connection. You will have to to the job of desolder and resolder it back or a new one.

Anyone have any idea how to get the case off of an ACER ASPIRE 7736Z-4088 ? I’ve removed the battery, hard drive, memory, wireless, processor cooler, and all screws I can find. Case still won’t budge. Ideas?

Hi, I have a acer aspire 6530 and I can’t get the power jack out. I’ve taken the computer apart, however the jack is on the left side of the computer right by the hinge. I bought a power jack harness, however I can’t get the pj out.
Help please

If it is intermittent then 2 things cause problems. Bad caps inside the adapter. however MOST adaptors are glued together and cannot be repaired inside. If it took a power surge or lightning hit dont even bother. Most adapters can be replaced very cheaply. Just be sure the one you order has as high or higher watt ratings to ensure it can properly charge battery or even power the laptop. A Laptop adaptor is built like a cell phone charger but at 19.5V instead of 5V, Essentially it’s a Switching DC-DC power supply. Now if your customer has a spare dead charger, you may want to save the cord part that goes into the laptop. If its still in good shape, then you could splice it onto a working charger with same voltage and current (power) ratings to allow it to work.

So the second thing that happens to an adapter. If you yank the plug enough eventually it breaks. And sometimes it can even short out. This is because the molded plug is soldered inside the plug, and enough stress it will break usually the outer ground shield but sometimes the center wire. And if its bad enough it can short out, causing sparks and even flame. If you can therefore save the spare good plug off the dead adaptor you can using heavy heat shrink tubing, and solder repair or splice the old plug on the working adaptor to make a working adaptor. Sure you can just buy one, but as long as the owner is OK using the spliced version its better than nothing at all. I have tried to repair a broken molded rubber plug by slicing it apart and resoldering the wire(s). Thats a bit risky, although you can use a hot glue gun and some gorilla tape to make a temporary fix. The problem I usually run into here is that the customer does not care to buy a new adaptor, and just limps along on the repaired one till if fails again.
Buying a universal adaptor might appeal to a technician but is actually a bad idea for the consumer. Why? Because some of them allow you to reverse the polarity. While MOST notebooks have a heavy diode to protect themselves, not all do, and you can destroy the notebook if it does get accidentally reversed. To prevent that, suggest taping or hot gluing the tip onto the cord, or both.

Best option. Go to the dollar store and purchase a set of cheap rerigerator magnets,. Now just use them on your work table upside down, still make a diagram but place the magnets to sort out the various screw sizes, as well as avoiding 1 major problem. Losing the screws, PLUS while they are on the magnegts they get magnetized, So when you go to reinstall them, they will nicely stick to your jewelers screwdrivers or allen or torx wrenches/drivers to make it sooo much easier to reinstall without dropping one into the notebook. Or onto the floor, etc etc. Always try to pick an area to work on with a vinyl floor and white if possible. Why simple. Ever try to find such tiny screws in a carpet? Or black floor will also be hard to spot them. Tile floor ok, but they tend to bouch away to the craziest places. Next trick, tie on e of the refrigerator magnets to a string, and use it to sweep the floor, and most times you can snap them back up.

Oh be sure to keep the hard drive (if you remove it) AWAY from the magnets as it could erase the drive.

Here is some other tips to notebook laptop repair.
Be ever so careful removing plugs from sockets. Newer laptops use a very delicate hinged type of plug for the mouse, usb and other flat cables as well as keyboards.. The top of the connector lifts up releasing the cable. Also for the nylon white socket cables, use a set of jewelers curved fine needle nosed pliers, to gently rock out the plugs. NEVER pull on the wires as they are thin and could easily break. Carefully remove the tape usually black cloth type, and plastic clear or yellow tape back is used to hold the cables in place. Never force them, you can easily damage the wings of the plug. Keyboard and wider plugs often have brown (tan) colored wigs so you gently push both ends (sides) of the T spaded tan slider to release the plug. Again jewlers curved pliers are your best weapon. Just dont push very hard, as you can easily break the delicate tan retainer. many of the cables have a ink stamped line on them,. The line is meant to guide the cable in so it fits square and the line should be aligned with the end of the socket. Again do not force and or best way is to use jewelers pliers to reseat the cables. Wiggle them into the socket and have to be centred in the socket not off to one side. many have a piece of blue guiding tape. This HAS to be into the socket to allow enough tension to hold the cable in the socket properly.. In the event it could fall off, an simple way to fix it is to take 1 or 2 pieces of scotch tape Clear type is best, and carefully (I use cosmetic scissors, trim the excess tape to form around the (non copper) side of the ribbon cable. Avoid using tweezers as they will usually slip and gouge the cable.
If you should break the ear off the tan slider or if it even completley breaks off do not yet despair. If you have an item such as batteries or any with thin plastic packaging, you can actually cut 1 or 2 pieces and form a small sliding wedge that you can force into the non copper edge of the socket. It may take 2 of them which you can using a tiny drop of super glue to hold the peices togeter, and wiggle it into the edge of the socket to form enough tension to fix it. Then using scotch tape you can tape the plastic wedge to the socket so it cannot vibrate out. Woila, it lives again. Use again cosmetic scissors to trim the wedge and cut out of the plastic opackaging. So keep a few around for this purpose. An alternative would be to use part of an old phone screen protector pieces. A cheap hot glue gun is always your best friend to fix those Adaptor sockets that fell inside the notebook held in by plastic wings. never use super glue cause future repair would be impossible. you can usually find the hot glue gun and bag of sticks at most hobby shops for like almost nothing.

Lastly, while your in there, take an hobby store wide little paint brush, the kind with stiff bristles. Take and rub it thru the cooling fan fins poking in and out to remove all the dust that collects. Now carefully if you can either remove the fan or remove the plastic tape over the radiator fins. It works best of you can remove the fan, and the tape to expose the inside of the fins. 99% of the time with any kind of age, you will have a ball of lint or dust in there that you can brush out. This is sucked in my people using the laptop on a blanket or carpeting.
While you can just use compressed air to blow from the outside, which works to maintain cleaning, it still will just blow the dust into the fan blades, and instead of removig it will just end up back into the fins once the fan starts up again. You can easily glue the plastic tape or use gorilla tape to replace to form a cover across from fan to heat fins. Dont go overbaord with this, cause sometimes it means having to remove the whole motherboard to get access to the fan. Try to avoid removing the heat spreader from the cpu becasue the thermal silver artic paste, will be dried up and crumble. If you do need to remove the spreader, have some replacement silver thermal and not use the white or any other substitute. Scrape awaw carefully with a single edge razor blade or exacto knife and use qtips and alcohol to clean away the crumbled old silver thermal stuff. Do NOT scrape away the rubberry or spongy foam pads, although you can often use a thiock coating of silver thermal grease to fix it Overall its most important that a solid bond and it only takes 2-3 drops to form a layer between top of cpu and thermal spreader. But it has to be flat and clean, or it wont effectively cool the processor.

ok now that I have written a book on this I hope all of this information gained from years of experience is worth the time I took to write it.

Good luck with your notebook repairs, and follow these guides to get you out of troubles when the inevitable happens….

Great guide im using it right now I have a felt card table and i use the chip holes for part placedment identifycatation and cup holes for screws and felt keeps screws from rolling off hope i help add this procedure table to your System.

Desoldering iron is a vital tool to properly removing from a board. Also Solder Wick can be used to avoid any solder bridges. Another thing, BEFORE removing the bad jack, measure using a DC ohmeter, to locate the center pin and another area usually very close by that represents the center pin foil. Make note of it, so like as you say with the Sony Viao and others, that if the center pin is so badly burned, you can run a short insulated peice of wire to the distribution power pad and still get a good repair. Often the board has internal layers. I have actually see where a board carbonized to the point where it literally shorts out, smoke even flames can be the result. If your lucky however you can bend up the tab of the center pin and solder jumper wire to the power distribution area, possibly even to cut part of the trace away to make it live again. Usually can spot the distribution point of power, by white or tan ceramic surface mount fuse(s) either on bottom or top of logic board. If so badly damaged the ground traces are bad, you can also jumper the outer pin of the barrel to any solid point of ground such as a shield nearby. If the center pin is shorting to ground because of carbonizing, the plate holes part of the distribution area can be seen and could possibly cut the foil to restore and remove the short. Its very unlikely the entire board shorts out or that the power socket itself shorts out. They can crack the plastic holding the center pin, which is hard to solder since it is usually riveted to the solder tab. Do not despair, often you can take a sharp fine screwdriver or tiny file, to file the back end of the center pin, to allow solder to stick to it, and can often resolder the pin. However the better idea wuld be to replace the jack instead. If manufacturers would only consider the design of the Imac notebooks with the wonderful magnetic adaptor plug/socket the notebook might last many years! .

Just a tip about where to keep the screws and a template of each layer you are working on.

Use a small sheet of polystyrene and a cd marker pen, then simply draw a box and any panel spaces from the underside of the laptop. Remove the screws and push them into the polystyrene in the appropriate places, if there are missing screws note them on the template.

Remove the underside plastic casing using credit cards to hold open and splice the casing apart and then draw another box for the inside where the motherboard meets the topside. To locate the screws that attach the motherboard to the topside when reassembling I always colour marker pen on the motherboard where the screws are before removing them, as frequently there are holes on the motherboard that either are not used or the underside case screws go through them.

Write on the wifi card the aerial connection colours.

Always use a torque screwdriver to prevent over-tightening as this can cause a lot of damage.

Seeing as the laptop is open, clean all the vents and the fan and re-heatsink paste the CPU.

Using the polystyrene template means you can keep the disassembled laptop stored for sometime and rebuild it easily without having to remember or think, which is always a bonus.